By Ken Ritter
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Police arrested a suspect Thursday in the road-rage killing of a Las Vegas mother after SWAT teams swarmed a home about a block from the site where she was shot a week ago.
Police did not release the male suspect’s name or discuss his possible involvement in the killing of 44-year-old Tammy Meyers. The shirtless suspect was led into a car by an officer and taken to police headquarters for questioning.
“We still have a lot of investigative work to do,” Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Tomaino said.
The case has received significant attention since police initially said Meyers was killed by an angry driver who followed her home after she gave her teenage daughter a driving lesson.
She was removed from life support on Valentine’s Day as police hunted for a suspect, and donations for her funeral costs quickly poured in to a fundraising site.
The sympathy morphed into skepticism after police revealed that Meyers was not followed home, and instead dropped her daughter off and picked up her 22-year-old son, armed with his 9 mm handgun, to try to confront the driver who had frightened her earlier.
They went looking for the driver, followed the vehicle and eventually went home. The silver car then showed up outside the Meyers’ home and a shootout occurred. The mother was shot in the head outside the home.
“I did what I had to do to protect my family,” said Brandon Meyers, 22. “Everyone can think what they have to think. I did it for a reason. And I’d do it for anyone I love.”
It’s not yet known if the suspect and members of the Meyers family knew each other.
Melissa Mours, who lives next door to the suspect, said several people showed up at her neighbor’s house this week and knocked on the door, including at least one Meyers family member.
It’s also not clear if police were still looking for other suspects. Family members told police there were three people in the silver car.
Earlier, as authorities worked to coax the suspect to surrender, Meyers’ husband, Robert, arrived and was emotionally distraught as he tried get close to the home that police had surrounded.
As he walked past the yellow police tape, he was stopped by a police officer who tried to calm the man down.
“It’s OK,” the officer could be heard telling him.
“No it ain’t OK!” the husband shouted back, his voice breaking up.
The officer asked the man to step back behind the yellow tape, and he stormed off past reporters.
“Are you all happy? You made my wife look like an animal,” he told reporters. “There’s the animal, a block away!”
Neighbor Brian Atkinson said he was awakened at about 11:30 a.m. by bullhorns and the sound of a helicopter as police showed up to arrest the suspect.
“They were calling his name and telling him to come out. That they had the house surrounded and they weren’t going to hurt him,” said Atkinson, a 57-year-old former police officer. “They told him they weren’t going to go away.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press